Food service bus cart

ABSTRACT

This Food Service Bus Cart is designed to maneuver around tight space found in most full service and buffet style restaurant. Since space are premium in most restaurant, operators usually try to fit as much seating as possible and turn over these seating as quick as possible to be profitable. Most dine-in customers do not like to see dirty dishes nor do they like to hear the sound of dishes being bussed. This equipment saves a lot of running around and time to turn over a table for next seating. People that dines out wants a clean, quiet and service-oriented environment. The bus cart can handle 3 full dish tray, 4 half size glass tray as well as having the function to hold the necessary equipments needed to turn around a seating area in the least amount of time. The trays are designed to stack on top of one another, using coil springs/gravity to handle the collection of numerous dishware and glassware. The other benefit is avoiding the breaking of dishes to disrupt the guest dinning experience and the loss of revenues by the food service operator.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Most food service facilities used a push cart with plastic buckets to move used dirty dishes from their dining table to the dish washing area. This procedure requires the dishwasher to sort out the dishes, silverware and glassware before pushing the dish cart into the washing machine. Another method most commonly done are servers carrying soiled dishes by hand or large carrying trays. This method severely limited the amount of dishes that can be handled by one person's and time is not efficiently utilized. To continuously travel back and forth between the dining area and the dish washing area is time consuming. When the dirty dishes are brought back to the washing area, they are just left in the general area and a person is needed to sort out the mess before the different wares can be loaded into the dishwashing machine. This created another time consuming portion of the operating procedure. All the manual handling by different employees of a food service business also increases the possibilities of breakage of dishes and glassware. The bus cart in this invention facilitate the quickness of removing all dirty dishes, glassware and tableware from the dining table, cleaning it and turning it around quickly for more customer seating. The bus cart has the capacity to handle more glassware, tableware and dishes by utilizing the racks used in dishwashing operations to store these items and they can be sorted out in different sections to facilitate a much quicker washing operations. The bus cart is designed to hold three full dish rack and four half size glassware rack with an area to soak the silverware. When the dining table is being clean, the person sorts out the different ware into different racks right at the table and then used sanitize towel to clean the table for their next guest. When all the racks are filled, they can be push back to the dish washing machine and loaded into the machine without ever having to sort out the dish and glass ware. This saves time and eliminate a dishwashing employee position for anybody can just take it off the cart and push it into the machine and close the door where the washing can proceed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention facilitate the different steps currently employed in cleaning of soiled dishes from the dining room to the washing area of a restaurant. Food Service must turn over their tables in the dining area quickly so that their guest can be seated quickly and more service can be provided in order to be profitable. By saving 5 to 10 minutes on each turn around and eliminating one position in the restaurant does help the bottom line of the daily operating financials of the business. Space are a premium at most food service facilities and trying to get big busing cart are a challenge. When this bus cart is utilize, the person cleaning the table for the next guest can placed all the dishes in their respective areas and clean the table with the necessary equipments on the cart in less time, thus creating a quick turn around for the next guest to be seated and served. When the bus cart dish or glass racks are full, this cart can be pushed back into the dishwashing area and loaded into the dish washer without having to sort it out like the current procedure. All the dishes can be washed and sanitized in a matter of minutes, thus able to be use again.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 of the drawings shows the back side of the bus cart facing the person who pushes the cart. This side consists of the holding container for trash, the holding container where silverware are soaking, the locking mechanism for the dish tray platform base, the holding container for the sanitizing solution with wiping table cloth and the holding container for the spray bottle, the bottom tray where trash and liquid can be discarded, the swirl wheel mounted to the bottom of the bus cart and the coil springs that moves up and down with the weight of the dishes and gravity.

FIG. 2 of the drawing shows the right side panel for the bus tray where the dish and glass tray are stored and can be access through the openings provided. In the middle of the door is the handle to assist in the opening and closing of the door. Underneath the bus tray is the sliding drawer container where liquid and other materials are collected and discarded. An opening on top of this drawer allows the inside of the bus cart to be clean when needed.

FIG. 3 drawing shows the side panel door connected to the side wall by a wire and the locking mechanism. The door is attach to the bus cart by using hinges at the bottom.

FIG. 4 drawing shows the wheel base of the back of the bus cart that allows the wheel to turn in a 360 degree direction that would allow for easier maneuver in most thigh space found in all food service facility.

FIG. 5 drawing shows the holding boxes that are connected to the bus cart, latching on to the bus cart opening in the wall.

FIG. 6 drawing shows the coil springs bar and lock that can secure the dish trays and assist in the loading and unloading of dirty dishes with a platform that drop and rise with the assistance of coil springs and gravity.

FIG. 7 drawing shows the top view of the platform base that holds the dish tray with a slight raised edge on four sides to firmly hold the tray in place to prevent the tray from moving.

FIG. 8 drawing shows the side view of the platform base that has the view of slightly raised edge.

FIG. 9 is the three dimensioned complete view of the food service cart. Every part that stated in the above description is incorporated in this drawing. The front part of the bus cart has two wheels that are joint together by a drive rod underneath to support and balance the load of the cart.

FIG. 10 drawing shows the top view of the bus cart that shows the dish tray and the half glass tray inside the bus cart.

FIG. 11 shows the dish tray needed for the bus cart with the extended arm to hold another dish tray on the top. The need for the support arm is to create a base for the next dish tray to be situated in a balance manner because the dishware in every food service facility is of different size and shape.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, the bus cart handle 101 that navigates the bus cart is place high above as not to obstruct the trash and silverware containment areas and therefore easier for any person to navigate the cart around tight areas. Looking at the back panel where the cart is being navigate, there are different parts that are utilized for different functions. Trash collection holder 102 and soiled silverwares holder 103 are in detachable containers that can be emptied and cleaned whenever it is necessary. Soiled silverwares can be soaked in cleaning solution inside the holder where it could be removed easily and pour out for cleaning and the cleaning/soaking solution can be change often. Table wipe cloth with sanitizing solution 104 and sanitize bottle sprayer 105 holders are part of the cleaning solution to turning dining room tables around in a fast and efficient manner. On the right side of this back panel is the instrument 106 that locks the dish cart holding plate in position. As the dishwashing tray is being filled, the weight of the dishes and gravity will push the platform downward and allows the next tray to be loaded on top of the dishwashing tray beneath it. But with the movement of the cart in a tight position, there has to be a mechanism to secure the platform in place. Underneath the bus cart is a holding pan 107 that can be removed to discard water or trash accumulating food particles. There is a hole in the sloping tray that allows the bus cart to be sprayed and water drain at the end of each business day. The bus cart is moved around by a swivel wheel 108 in the bottom of the cart. Each corner of the bus cart lies the coil springs 109 that assist in the up and down movement of the base holding plate of the dish cart.

Looking at the right side of the panel of the bus cart there is a door 110 that can be open to retrieve the empty dish cart that are utilize whenever the top one is full. The door lock mechanism 111 is a metal rotating piece of equipment similar to those use on airplanes food cart. A door handle 112 is place in the center of the door to facilitate the operator to grab the handle and open the door with ease. The door is attached to the bus cart by using hinges 113. As we move along with the drawings the next page shows the door handle and wire latched 114 holding the door that create access into the inside of the bus cart. It is held together with hinges at the bottom of the bus cart. The door will never go past 90 degrees angle and can be easily open and close without alignment problems. The swirl wheel that is mounted at the bottom, in the back of the bus cart. The wheel is mounted on a square plate 115 which in turn is mounted onto the bus cart. The wheel can turn 360 degree around and is best suited for going around tight spots. The next drawing under the swirl wheel shows the trash and soaking container that are hooked 116 on to the back of the cart therefore it can be detached for discarding the trash or silverware for washing and changing the soaking solution.

The next drawing shows the locking mechanism 117 that will hold the platform base from moving in any direction. When the bus cart is moving, there is a tendency for heavy objects to bounce up and down with gravity. The top view of the platform holding base 118 is shown. The four sides have a slight raised edge to hold the dish and glass tray in place. It is not totally connected at each end because it allows the base plate to be rinse and clean of any debris. The next drawing shows the side view of the platform holding base 119 for the dish and glass tray that are hold tightly in place with the slight raised edge. The front wheel 120 that is attached to the three dimensioned view of the bus cart provides the stability and ease movement to the bus cart. Following the three dimensioned view of the bus cart shows the top view of the bus cart. The left section demonstrates the half size glass tray 121 which can holds 18 glassware. The right section of the bus cart is where the dish tray 122 is located. A special dish tray 123 is needed for this bus cart. It has an extended arm on four corners to facilitate the balancing of another dish tray place above it. Due to the different size of plates utilize in different food facilities, the extension arm is needed to ensure that the next dish tray is situation flat on the next level. The extension arm must be precise in height and must fit into the dishwashing machine found in most food service facilities. 

1. A claim that this bus cart is a one stop equipment that utilize coil springs to lower and raise the dish cart, a locking mechanism to secure the platform base and utilizing half size glass tray so that the bus cart is slim and short to be able to fit around tight spaces. The bus cart also utilize containers to hold trash, sanitize bottle and sanitize wipe cloth to clean and turn over a dining table all in one step. This invention eliminates the sorting of pile dishes in food service kitchen during rush period and reduce the risk of breakage. 